A Sword Without a Hilt: A Song of Ice and Fire/D&D 3.5 Crossover

Fifth Day of the Eleventh Month 293 AC

After yet another morning of Devil calling, sealing them to await their fate and assuring yourself that nothing at court would require your urgent attention for at least the next week you bid farewell to Ser Richard and Rina who will be heading out to investigate rumors of haunted barrows in the Riverlands. The time had come to venture into the forth of the Elemental Spheres, the Boundless Sea, to Vialesk the Fair, so called it is said for both its beauty and its splendid bargains for all who would venture there. You are momentarily surprised to find your mother had braided her hair tightly, at odds with her usual manner whether at court or on the road, before you realize the water would likely make it all too easy to tangle. Luckily your crown should keep yours from being too unruly, and for once it will be a crown. There is no reason to hide your identity in the realm of the mercantile Maridar, and given the fact that you would be traveling with Relath as his lord it will be practically impossible to hide that you are a Dragon.

The Brine Dragon awaits you in the calm waters of the harbor, swimming lazily between the trading galleys making port, pretending not to notice the awed looks and wondering calls of sailors new come to the Deep while Breath Taker waits quietly by the pier, eyes closed in thought, or perhaps sending a prayer to the Ferryman of old and one true king to the triton kindred. However distracted he might seem his eyes snap open as soon as you take your first step upon the pier and by the time you dive into the water Relath too has abandoned his preening to draw close for the passage, and the enormous fungal mantas had risen like a great shadow from the silt of the sea floor.

As Breath Taker opens the path beyond the world in the swift-flowing tongue of the seas, the shallow murky waters of the harbor give way to endless blue, no light shinning from above and yet as clear as a spun crystal between your fingers as you move about by arcane grace. Much like the windswept depths of the Realms of Air there is no landmark for the gaze to anchor to, as though the four of you are alone in an endless void. Yet here as in the Endless Sky the currents are the key. You can feel them against your skin threaded through with magic subtle at it is enduring, like the lifeblood of Vialesk.

Fish beyond number congregate here, from swift silver darters to ones that seem like black tattered sails, others in great flowing shoals, the false eye markings upon them making them seem like titanic beasts. There are jellyfish alight with inner radiance that shift in arcane patterns, the better to befuddle their prey, and small sharks about the length of your arm that shift in and out of sight by some instinctive veiling while a swarm of strange three-eyed leeches begin to congregate towards the mantas until a blast of Relath's breath warns them off. The dragon takes the lead then, cutting through the water with as much grace as he does through air and so you travel swiftly for a time, discussing what you might wish to buy or to see in the City of the of Splendid Waves.

"I am curious to speak to the artisans of the Glass Forges for it is said they are the most skillful of all the Children of the Sea in harnessing fire," Breath Taker explains. "Now that we need no longer move from place to place following the shoals we can even forge our own tools, weapons and other clever workings of metal."

"I would see if there are any simple alchemical means to remove barnacles from the hulls of ships, the loss of speed under sail is a loss of gold," Relath adds. "Perhaps..."

A deep sonorous call echoes from below you, followed by another and a few moments later a third, like the sounds of some strange beast, but it is not some titan of the depths that rises to approach you, but instead a patrol of mermen, though these could not be more different from the pale weather-worn stone that graces the squares of White Harbor, tails of shimmering blue-green and purple and shellfish armor brightly dyed to match. In their hands they bear spears, or perhaps better said are lances of fluted bone sharp enough to pierce a young dragon's scales.


"Hail travelers from 'neath Strange Seas," their leader calls in fair draconic, though he holds his weapon ready to strike.

"We come to trade in spells, in silver and in song," Relath returns in what might be a ritual greeting, or simply the custom of these realms.

"Be thy journey fair and thy fortunes bright," comes the equally formal reply as the stances of those behind him shift from the expectation of battle to only the habitual caution of well-drilled soldiers.

As you swim on Relath explains that the words exchanged here were part of the ancient treaties that bind the City of Splendid Waves, the Marid Emirates, the Dominions of the Brine Wyrms, and even the Free Brotherhoods, the corsair and mercenary bands whose livelihood is the constant skirmishing that marks the Boundless Sea.

Soon you begin to see more and more signs of civilization, great Shell Ships, like the haunted remains of titanic beasts pass by sleek ships of living coral, locathah dolphin-riders wearing armor of foreign bronze over their scaled forms cross paths with silver-armored knights of the sea atop seahorses that move so swiftly through the water they almost seem to blur, until at last you come to the first outpost. Guarded by gleaming twin statues of Appareimos and Perenantos, the Liberators of Vialesk, stands a tower of delicate enchanted glass that expands to an air filled chamber above.


The very top of that chamber is open to the sea, you notice, the water held back by some sorcery that ships might dock there if they have need for air-breathing visitors to pass through freely, while most of the verification and taxation is done in the open sea by Merfolk, each with a brightly colored eel around their forearm to sniff out contraband.

What trade goods do you bring to Vialesk?

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OOC: Not the most riveting vote, I know, but I need to know what you guys are selling so I can decide how the primarily mercantile elite of the city reacts to Viserys and company.